Chapter 1411: The Girls Would Not Let Go

Noxhart shook its head without answering.

Pitch-black clouds rose beneath its feet, quickly spreading wide enough to carry both deer. It stepped onto the cloud and tilted its head at Vesperhart.

"Coming? Let’s go see how he’s doing."

Vesperhart hesitated before joining it. It stayed at the very edge of the cloud, the clocks in its eyes turning slowly as it kept watch on their surroundings.

Below, Andona finally carried Ethan back within the group’s defenses.

The instant she caught him, the energy sphere that had sunk into Noxhart’s body produced a response. A flood of information poured into Ethan’s mind through the connection between their energies. Noxhart’s abilities unfolded one after another—far more than he had expected.

There were too many.

The workings of countless powers crammed into his head at once. Before Ethan could warn the others, the torrent overwhelmed his consciousness.

His eyes closed, and his body went limp in Andona’s arms.

Seraphine quickly expanded the gray shield, bringing Ethan and the others under its protection. Before anyone could check on him, a vast black cloud blotted out the light overhead.

Vesperhart and Noxhart had arrived.

The two deer stood atop the cloud, looking down at everyone inside the shield. Noxhart raised a front hoof and lightly tapped the cloud twice.

Darkness spilled from its edges.

Armed soldiers took shape from the descending shadows, surrounding the shield. Instead of landing, they hovered silently in midair, their hollow faces turned toward those inside.

Noxhart glanced at Vesperhart, sounding as casual as if it were dividing up teams for a game.

"You pick a few, and I’ll pick a few."

"Fair, right?"

Vesperhart didn’t answer.

The two clocks in its eyes began to spin faster. Its gaze settled on the unconscious Ethan, and the flow of time across the gray shield broke apart. A narrow crack opened at the front and rapidly widened.

A powerful suction force passed through the gap and locked onto Ethan.

His body tore free from Andona’s arms and flew toward the two deer above. Auri lunged after him, gripping his arm with both hands, only to be dragged toward the opening as well.

Everyone else reached for them.

One hand caught Auri by the ankle. Another arm wrapped around Ethan’s waist. More hands grabbed hold of whoever was in front. Their bodies stretched into a taut line inside the shield, but Vesperhart’s pull only grew stronger.

The crack widened again.

Ethan and Auri were dragged through first. The other three little girls refused to let go, their small bodies slipping through the gap one after another.

Time power forced everyone else’s fingers apart.

In the end, only the four girls were still holding on to Ethan.

All five of them flew out of the gray shield together.

Standing on the black cloud, Noxhart stared helplessly at the four little girls Vesperhart had dragged out along with him.

It had told Vesperhart to choose some opponents, not fixate on Ethan alone. Now that all four little ones were out here, Noxhart couldn’t exactly ignore them.

Oh well.

Somebody had to be the kindhearted deer.

It supposed it could deal with them.

Ethan had no idea he’d been "kidnapped" out of the shield. His eyes remained closed as he floated in midair, Auri clinging tightly to his arm. Noah Feylora had been replenishing his energy ever since he entered the shield, but it was only enough to keep his body stable, not wake him immediately.

Besides, Noxhart’s chaotic collection of abilities was still jammed inside his consciousness, waiting to be sorted out one by one.

Vesperhart had no intention of waiting.

It looked down at the sleeping Ethan. White light flared between its antlers as compressed time power rapidly formed an energy sphere. The markings across its surface moved faster and faster before it launched straight at Ethan’s chest.

Auri reacted first.

She released Ethan’s arm and stepped onto a tree branch, using it to land in front of him. Pure Fairy energy surged from both arms. Green light spread through the void, causing masses of trunks, vines, and thick roots to grow all around them.

The empty space became a forest in the blink of an eye.

Every branch stretched toward Vesperhart. Vines twisted around its hooves, while roots stabbed up from below to intercept the energy sphere flying toward Ethan.

Anya raised a hand and fired an almost transparent bolt of lightning from her fingertips. It passed through the gaps between the branches and struck the sphere head-on. Countless tiny arcs spread across its surface, temporarily slowing it down.

At the same time, Idra enlarged her body.

Her dragon wings spread wide. She inhaled the surrounding air, and a low rumble came from within her chest. Scorching dragon breath burst from her mouth, threaded with jumping white lightning. It passed over Auri’s forest and swept toward Vesperhart.

The fourth girl remained beside Ethan, keeping him from floating any farther away.

Vesperhart looked at the four children before it, and the clocks in its eyes paused for a beat.

It gave a small nod.

The time sphere veered away from Ethan and shot diagonally into the sky. It detonated high above, and a circular outline appeared behind Vesperhart, though the space within it remained empty.

"The people around you are quite impressive."

Vesperhart’s voice softened. Its gaze passed over the girls and briefly settled on a direction that didn’t exist in this place.

"And I... once had wonderful companions too."

For the first time, excitement entered its voice. But the forces surging around it quickly pressed in. Before that emotion could reach its eyes, irritation and violent frenzy swallowed it whole.

Idra’s dragon breath had arrived.

Vesperhart raised both front hooves, then stomped against the void. The roots binding its body shattered one after another. Time power froze the splintered wood in place and joined the fragments into a thick circular shield.

The dragon breath struck the barrier, sending flames and white lightning spilling around both sides.

Then Vesperhart charged out from behind the fire.

It lowered its antlers and rammed straight into the oncoming Idra.

A heavy crash rolled across the battlefield.

Idra’s head snapped back, and her body spun halfway around in midair. By the time she steadied her wings, several Vesperharts were swaying in different directions across her vision. She tried to fly forward, but her limbs couldn’t follow her judgment. Her flight path wobbled wildly.

Vesperhart was knocked back several steps as well.

Idra’s charge had left its skull numb, even disrupting the energy between its antlers for a moment. But as the surrounding time power continued to enter its body, the dizziness was reversed. Its breathing steadied, and its footing recovered.

Auri’s branches arrived in time to wrap around Idra’s waist and pull her back to Ethan.

Once she confirmed Idra was still conscious, Auri formed a green energy sphere in her hand. She shoved it forward, sending it down a corridor between the trees toward Vesperhart. Tiny vines sprouted in its wake, trying to entangle the deer’s legs and slow its advance.

While the battle raged on, Ethan’s consciousness remained elsewhere.

White lightning had separated the countless unfamiliar powers, leaving them suspended throughout his mind. Anything useless or too unstable to control was shattered by the lightning. The abilities worth keeping slowly arranged themselves according to their different properties.

When the last chaotic strand of energy finally settled, Ethan let out a long breath inside his own consciousness.

"This is exhausting..."

He looked at the staggering number of energies around him and finally understood why he had taken so long to wake up.

"What exactly is Noxhart? Space, time, darkness, light... It even has abilities from The Sea Folk."

Ethan watched the ever-changing motes of energy, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Are you seriously not worried about biting off more than you can chew?"

Still, Noxhart wasn’t entirely to blame.

Its clouds were scattered all over the world. As long as it used them to observe different places, imitating the abilities it witnessed wouldn’t be difficult.

Ethan picked out the most useful powers and pressed them into his body one by one. Space and time stabilized first, with darkness and light quickly finding their places as well.

When he reached the energy for controlling clouds, however, he shoved it aside in disdain.

Cloud control?

What use was that?

Compared with the battle around Ethan, Noxhart’s fight with the others was more like a cruel game.

It used space and time to shift constantly from one position to another. Sometimes it swept over everyone’s heads; other times, it hid in the nearby darkness. Whenever someone was about to lock on to it, Noxhart summoned another wave of floating cloud soldiers and forced them to switch targets.

Emerald Castle’s army was already locked in combat with the cloud soldiers. Whenever a weapon split one apart, the scattered mist re-formed somewhere else. When a cloud soldier’s spear struck a soldier’s armor, it exploded into a heavy blast of air.

Everyone else remained within Seraphine’s shield, watching their surroundings.

They were all waiting for Noxhart to come close again.

If it entered their attack range one more time, it wouldn’t be leaving intact.